Underscoring Success of Live TV, Music Specials Will Make a Return

A MEDIA executive who has had a high profile on Madison Avenue is returning to the spotlight by reviving a pair of music-centered television specials he developed, signing sponsors and partners like AOL, Cumulus, L’Oréal, Macy’s, Mazda, Time Inc. and Verizon.

The specials, “Fashion Rocks” and “Movies Rock,” will be broadcast in two-hour, prime-time slots by CBS; “Fashion Rocks” will be live and “Movies Rock” may be. “Fashion Rocks” is to take place one night during New York Fashion Week 2014, which runs Sept. 4-11, and “Movies Rock” will be telecast from Los Angeles one night in mid-December.

There were five previous “Fashion Rocks” specials, the last in 2008, and one previous “Movies Rock” special, in 2007, all on CBS except for the first “Fashion Rocks,” on Fox. Their return dovetails with a programming trend that is gaining momentum: a desire among networks to give viewers more “event television,” shows deemed worth watching — and discussing on social media — in real time, making it likelier that commercials will be seen.

“In this day and age, not much is DVR-proof,” said Karen Mlynarczyk, vice president for integrated marketing communications for the Maybelline, Garnier and Essie brands at L’Oréal USA. “We are definitely interested in appointment TV, live TV, because it encourages stronger viewer engagement and drives social conversations.” Garnier and Maybelline will be sponsors of “Fashion Rocks.”

Although “Fashion Rocks” and “Movies Rock” predate platforms like Twitter, “they provided great, big musical moments that people talked about the next day,” said Jack Sussman, executive vice president for specials, music and live events at CBS Entertainment. As such, they epitomize the urge among network executives for — as they expressed frequently during upfront presentations this month — “eventizing” their schedules.

“Both these brands are great examples of event television, bringing big-name music stars to broadcast television with high-end, high-energy production values,” Mr. Sussman said. “Years later, we will have that momentum going for us again, and we will be ramping up in a big way, leading up to the shows, in social media.”

The revival of the specials is the brainchild of their creator, Richard D. Beckman, formerly of Condé Nast and Prometheus Global Media and now chief executive of a firm, Three Lions Entertainment, that produces branded content for marketers. Mr. Beckman is one lion, along with two other partners, the billionaire Ron Burkle and the entertainment lawyer Joel Katz. They formed Three Lions in March 2013, months after Mr. Beckman left Prometheus after a change in duties that was perceived as a diminishing of his responsibilities.

“I didn’t see that as a failure,” Mr. Beckman said of his two years at Prometheus. “I was very proud of a lot of things I did there, like bringing the ‘Billboard Music Awards’ back to TV.”

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“Movies Rock,” a two-hour special on CBS, will be telecast from Los Angeles in December.

Three Lions “seemed to me the natural thing to be doing next,” he added. “At a big media company, sometimes you feel like the pork sausage at the bar mitzvah.”

A challenge confronting advertisers is that “audience sizes have been diminishing, and coupled with resistance to commercial messaging, it’s tougher and tougher for them to engage consumers,” Mr. Beckman said. “We’ve created a company designed to produce bespoke assets that afford advertisers the opportunity to embed themselves across multiple channels: TV, online and social media.”

That appeals to Russell Wager, vice president for marketing at Mazda North America Operations, a sponsor for both specials. “We’ve been dipping our toe into” event television, he said, by arranging for Mazdas to be given away on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” and working with Three Lions “is definitely jumping head first into it.”

Verizon will also be involved with both specials, said Lou Rossi, president of Zenith New York, the media agency for Verizon, as when Mr. Beckman was overseeing them at Condé Nast.

“We’ve had good experiences” with him, Mr. Rossi said, adding: “He has an ability to create these top-notch productions. He does deliver on the ideas he brings to us, and he listens when we talk about our objectives for our clients.”

Martine Reardon, chief marketing officer of Macy’s, which will sponsor “Fashion Rocks,” also cited history with Mr. Beckman. “We were always talking about this, but the timing wasn’t right,” she said. “Now, we’re saying, ‘This is really something we want to be part of.’ ”

The hiatus between the last “Fashion Rocks” special and the coming one “won’t matter,” she said, because “it’s an entertainment show with a great combination of music and fashion.”

Outside the realm of television, AOL is the online partner for the specials; Cumulus, for radio; and Time Inc. for print, with two special issues, each composed of 80 content pages (produced by Time Inc. employees) and 40 ad pages (sold by Three Lions).

The news staff of Entertainment Weekly will produce the “Movies Rock” issue, to be mailed with a December issue of that magazine to 1.7 million subscribers. The newsroom staff of InStyle will produce the “Fashion Rocks” issue, which will be mailed with September issues of InStyle, to 1.2 million subscribers, and People StyleWatch, to 200,000 subscribers.

“We will also have exposure on the show,” said Karin Tracy, publisher of InStyle. “Ariel Foxman, our editor, will serve as editor at large of ‘Fashion Rocks,’ and the show will include InStyle branding elements.” Likewise, said Melissa Mattiace, publisher of Entertainment Weekly, “Matt Bean, editor of E.W., will serve as editor at large of ‘Movies Rock,’ with E.W. branding elements woven into the contents.”

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